The Conclusion returns to the six claims about the relationship between nationalism and social policy formulated in Chapter 1 before suggesting that the analysis of the nationalism–social policy ...
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The Conclusion returns to the six claims about the relationship between nationalism and social policy formulated in Chapter 1 before suggesting that the analysis of the nationalism–social policy nexus is relevant beyond our three empirical cases. After discussing the Spanish case, it stresses the role of the relationship between state nationalism and social policy in developed nation-states like Germany, Sweden, and the United States. It is argued that, with the exception of the United States, this relationship is a significant issue in such nation-states. This analysis leads to a brief discussion about the meaning of the present study for the debates on the future of the European Union. The final section assesses the general meaning of our study for the literatures on nationalism and on social policy.Less

Conclusion

Daniel BélandAndré Lecours

Published in print: 2008-08-01

The Conclusion returns to the six claims about the relationship between nationalism and social policy formulated in Chapter 1 before suggesting that the analysis of the nationalism–social policy nexus is relevant beyond our three empirical cases. After discussing the Spanish case, it stresses the role of the relationship between state nationalism and social policy in developed nation-states like Germany, Sweden, and the United States. It is argued that, with the exception of the United States, this relationship is a significant issue in such nation-states. This analysis leads to a brief discussion about the meaning of the present study for the debates on the future of the European Union. The final section assesses the general meaning of our study for the literatures on nationalism and on social policy.

Becoming Hebrew is a study of the ways in which a Zionist national culture was generated in the Jewish Yishuv (prestate community) of Palestine between 1900 and 1914. The book addresses ...
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Becoming Hebrew is a study of the ways in which a Zionist national culture was generated in the Jewish Yishuv (prestate community) of Palestine between 1900 and 1914. The book addresses three principal lacunae in the study of Zionist culture to date. The first of these is chronological. Much of the literature to date has assumed that a distinctive Zionist national culture began to appear in Palestine during the interwar period, whereas Becoming Hebrew argues that its formative period in fact predates the war. Out of this chronological claim emerge the two additional, more conceptually and theoretically substantive, correctives. In the first instance, the book shows that the relationship between the Zionist cultural undertaking and traditional Jewish culture is far more complicated and nuanced than has often been recognized. Joining a new and important historiographical trend, the book suggests further that the Zionist case sheds important light on nationalism generally, which itself emerges in a more complex and dialectical relationship with the religious cultures and traditional societies out of which it grows than has often been acknowledged in much of the now classical literature. Finally, in its conceptualization of “culture” as created in Zionist Palestine, the book synthesizes a literary‐like study of imageries and discourses and a more anthropological examination of observable cultural practices and tangible, public social processes to produce a history of culture as a broad interweaving of many aspects of human life.Less

Becoming Hebrew : The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine

Arieh B. Saposnik

Published in print: 2008-11-06

Becoming Hebrew is a study of the ways in which a Zionist national culture was generated in the Jewish Yishuv (prestate community) of Palestine between 1900 and 1914. The book addresses three principal lacunae in the study of Zionist culture to date. The first of these is chronological. Much of the literature to date has assumed that a distinctive Zionist national culture began to appear in Palestine during the interwar period, whereas Becoming Hebrew argues that its formative period in fact predates the war. Out of this chronological claim emerge the two additional, more conceptually and theoretically substantive, correctives. In the first instance, the book shows that the relationship between the Zionist cultural undertaking and traditional Jewish culture is far more complicated and nuanced than has often been recognized. Joining a new and important historiographical trend, the book suggests further that the Zionist case sheds important light on nationalism generally, which itself emerges in a more complex and dialectical relationship with the religious cultures and traditional societies out of which it grows than has often been acknowledged in much of the now classical literature. Finally, in its conceptualization of “culture” as created in Zionist Palestine, the book synthesizes a literary‐like study of imageries and discourses and a more anthropological examination of observable cultural practices and tangible, public social processes to produce a history of culture as a broad interweaving of many aspects of human life.

The concluding chapter revisits the process that led, within little more than a decade, from a sense of impending “national death” to the emergence of a budding national entity. Aimed at a thorough ...
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The concluding chapter revisits the process that led, within little more than a decade, from a sense of impending “national death” to the emergence of a budding national entity. Aimed at a thorough recasting of Jewishness in the modern world, the Zionist project in Palestine had set a deeply revolutionary transformation in motion. It was one, however, that maintained a complex relationship with the traditions it had renounced and, while secularizing, also sought to create a new national sacrality. The chapter places this undertaking in the contexts of modern Jewish politics, the interconnectedness of “culture” and “politics,” and a methodology that combines the study of mentalities with their tangible manifestations in the form of cultural practice, in the process shedding light on the nature of culture as a historical force and on the combined workings of the traditional and the new in the making of modern nationalism.Less

Conclusion

Arieh Bruce Saposnik

Published in print: 2008-11-06

The concluding chapter revisits the process that led, within little more than a decade, from a sense of impending “national death” to the emergence of a budding national entity. Aimed at a thorough recasting of Jewishness in the modern world, the Zionist project in Palestine had set a deeply revolutionary transformation in motion. It was one, however, that maintained a complex relationship with the traditions it had renounced and, while secularizing, also sought to create a new national sacrality. The chapter places this undertaking in the contexts of modern Jewish politics, the interconnectedness of “culture” and “politics,” and a methodology that combines the study of mentalities with their tangible manifestations in the form of cultural practice, in the process shedding light on the nature of culture as a historical force and on the combined workings of the traditional and the new in the making of modern nationalism.

This chapter explains the book's central foci—the ways in which Zionism's vision of a new Hebrew nation was translated into the concrete institutions, practices, and rituals that generated a national ...
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This chapter explains the book's central foci—the ways in which Zionism's vision of a new Hebrew nation was translated into the concrete institutions, practices, and rituals that generated a national entity in Palestine. This is placed within the context of the existing literature on the history of Zionism and the Jewish community of Palestine and is framed in terms of the implications of this study for understanding nationalism, secularization, and Jewish modernity. In this context, the chapter sets out the three principal areas in which the book seeks to shed new light. These include chronology (an earlier dating of the formative years to the prewar decade); the relationship between the new Hebrew culture of Palestine and traditional Jewish cultures; and a thicker description of what that culture entailed, based in a methodology that incorporates discourse and imagery with praxis and ritual.Less

Introduction : To Become a Nation of “Jewish Culture”

Arieh Bruce Saposnik

Published in print: 2008-11-06

This chapter explains the book's central foci—the ways in which Zionism's vision of a new Hebrew nation was translated into the concrete institutions, practices, and rituals that generated a national entity in Palestine. This is placed within the context of the existing literature on the history of Zionism and the Jewish community of Palestine and is framed in terms of the implications of this study for understanding nationalism, secularization, and Jewish modernity. In this context, the chapter sets out the three principal areas in which the book seeks to shed new light. These include chronology (an earlier dating of the formative years to the prewar decade); the relationship between the new Hebrew culture of Palestine and traditional Jewish cultures; and a thicker description of what that culture entailed, based in a methodology that incorporates discourse and imagery with praxis and ritual.

Peripheral cultures have been largely absent from the European canon of historiography. The principal aim of this book is to contribute to redressing the balance. It does so by offering an insight ...
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Peripheral cultures have been largely absent from the European canon of historiography. The principal aim of this book is to contribute to redressing the balance. It does so by offering an insight into the complexities of historical writing in nineteenth‐century East‐Central Europe and by ascertaining this tradition's place within the European historiographical heritage. At the core of the book lies a comparative analysis of the life‐work of five prominent scholars: Joachim Lelewel (Polish); Simonas Daukantas (Lithuanian); František Palacký (Czech); Mihály Horváth (Hungarian) and Mihail Kogălniceanu (Romanian). Rather than approaching these scholars' historical achievements from a narrow perspective, the book accommodates them in the context of their promotion of a unified vision of national culture. It discusses their accomplishments in the fields of language and literature, their pursuits in publishing journals and primary sources, and their contribution to the institutionalization and professionalization of the historical discipline.Through the reconstruction of these scholars' shared intellectual background and an in‐depth analysis of their historical narrative the author puts forward the claim that the five historians' professional and political agenda, influenced predominantly by liberalism and Romanticism, shared far more with their contemporaries elsewhere than has previously been assumed and thus renders them genuine representatives of a common European tradition.Less

Historians and Nationalism : East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century

Monika Baár

Published in print: 2010-02-04

Peripheral cultures have been largely absent from the European canon of historiography. The principal aim of this book is to contribute to redressing the balance. It does so by offering an insight into the complexities of historical writing in nineteenth‐century East‐Central Europe and by ascertaining this tradition's place within the European historiographical heritage. At the core of the book lies a comparative analysis of the life‐work of five prominent scholars: Joachim Lelewel (Polish); Simonas Daukantas (Lithuanian); František Palacký (Czech); Mihály Horváth (Hungarian) and Mihail Kogălniceanu (Romanian). Rather than approaching these scholars' historical achievements from a narrow perspective, the book accommodates them in the context of their promotion of a unified vision of national culture. It discusses their accomplishments in the fields of language and literature, their pursuits in publishing journals and primary sources, and their contribution to the institutionalization and professionalization of the historical discipline.Through the reconstruction of these scholars' shared intellectual background and an in‐depth analysis of their historical narrative the author puts forward the claim that the five historians' professional and political agenda, influenced predominantly by liberalism and Romanticism, shared far more with their contemporaries elsewhere than has previously been assumed and thus renders them genuine representatives of a common European tradition.

This book examines how the Institute of the Black World (IBW), led by historian, theologian, and political activist Vincent Harding, mobilized Black intellectuals in identifying strategy to continue ...
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This book examines how the Institute of the Black World (IBW), led by historian, theologian, and political activist Vincent Harding, mobilized Black intellectuals in identifying strategy to continue the Black Freedom Struggle in the 1970s. Harding and colleagues founded the IBW in Atlanta, Georgia in 1969. Under Harding's leadership, it became an activist think tank that evaluated Black Studies for emerging programs, developed a Black political agenda for the 1970s with Black elected officials and grassroots activists, and mediated ideological conflicts among Black activists. Relying on the input from an array of activist-intellectuals, the IBW eschewed ideological rigidity, whether in the form of liberalism, Marxism, or Black Nationalism, for a synthetic and pragmatic analytic framework forged through debate and designed to generate the largest amount of political and activist support. It used its network of intellectuals and activists to emphasize structural racism and a racialized political economy, each of which was designed to foster broad consensus in the Black activist community on difficult issues in the 1970s.Less

The Challenge of Blackness : The Institute of the Black World and Political Activism in the 1970s

Derrick E. White

Published in print: 2011-09-18

This book examines how the Institute of the Black World (IBW), led by historian, theologian, and political activist Vincent Harding, mobilized Black intellectuals in identifying strategy to continue the Black Freedom Struggle in the 1970s. Harding and colleagues founded the IBW in Atlanta, Georgia in 1969. Under Harding's leadership, it became an activist think tank that evaluated Black Studies for emerging programs, developed a Black political agenda for the 1970s with Black elected officials and grassroots activists, and mediated ideological conflicts among Black activists. Relying on the input from an array of activist-intellectuals, the IBW eschewed ideological rigidity, whether in the form of liberalism, Marxism, or Black Nationalism, for a synthetic and pragmatic analytic framework forged through debate and designed to generate the largest amount of political and activist support. It used its network of intellectuals and activists to emphasize structural racism and a racialized political economy, each of which was designed to foster broad consensus in the Black activist community on difficult issues in the 1970s.

What is the character of secularism in countries that were not pervaded by Christianity, such as China, India, and the nations of the Middle East? To what extent is the secular an imposition of ...
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What is the character of secularism in countries that were not pervaded by Christianity, such as China, India, and the nations of the Middle East? To what extent is the secular an imposition of colonial rule? How does secularism comport with local religious cultures in Africa, and how does it work with local forms of power and governance in Latin America? Has modern secularism evolved organically, or is it even necessary, and has it always meant progress? A vital extension of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, in which he exhaustively chronicled the emergence of secularism in Latin Christendom, this anthology applies Taylor’s findings to secularism’s global migration. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Rajeev Bhargava, Akeel Bilgrami, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Sudipta Kaviraj, Claudio Lomnitz, Alfred Stepan, Charles Taylor, and Peter van der Veer each explore the transformation of Western secularism beyond Europe, and the collection closes with Taylor’s response to each essay. What began as a modern reaction to—as well as a stubborn extension of—Latin Christendom has become a complex export shaped by the world’s religious and political systems. Brilliantly alternating between intellectual and methodological approaches, this volume fosters a greater engagement with the phenomenon across disciplines.Less

Beyond the Secular West

Published in print: 2016-03-15

What is the character of secularism in countries that were not pervaded by Christianity, such as China, India, and the nations of the Middle East? To what extent is the secular an imposition of colonial rule? How does secularism comport with local religious cultures in Africa, and how does it work with local forms of power and governance in Latin America? Has modern secularism evolved organically, or is it even necessary, and has it always meant progress? A vital extension of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, in which he exhaustively chronicled the emergence of secularism in Latin Christendom, this anthology applies Taylor’s findings to secularism’s global migration. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Rajeev Bhargava, Akeel Bilgrami, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Sudipta Kaviraj, Claudio Lomnitz, Alfred Stepan, Charles Taylor, and Peter van der Veer each explore the transformation of Western secularism beyond Europe, and the collection closes with Taylor’s response to each essay. What began as a modern reaction to—as well as a stubborn extension of—Latin Christendom has become a complex export shaped by the world’s religious and political systems. Brilliantly alternating between intellectual and methodological approaches, this volume fosters a greater engagement with the phenomenon across disciplines.

This chapter challenges the ethnic–civic dichotomy often used in discussions of nationalism. While the membership has a strong Scottish identity, there is a British dimension to the identities of a ...
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This chapter challenges the ethnic–civic dichotomy often used in discussions of nationalism. While the membership has a strong Scottish identity, there is a British dimension to the identities of a significant minority of members. The attitudes of the members are overwhelmingly civic but the members acknowledge multiple ways of defining who is ‘truly Scottish’, including both civic and ethnic ideas of belonging.Less

Nations, National Identity, and Nationalism

James MitchellLynn BennieRob Johns

Published in print: 2011-11-01

This chapter challenges the ethnic–civic dichotomy often used in discussions of nationalism. While the membership has a strong Scottish identity, there is a British dimension to the identities of a significant minority of members. The attitudes of the members are overwhelmingly civic but the members acknowledge multiple ways of defining who is ‘truly Scottish’, including both civic and ethnic ideas of belonging.

‘How do such people, with brilliant members and dull ones, fare when they pass from being a dominant minority to being a powerless one?’ So asked the Kilkenny man‐of‐letters Hubert Butler (1900‐91) ...
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‘How do such people, with brilliant members and dull ones, fare when they pass from being a dominant minority to being a powerless one?’ So asked the Kilkenny man‐of‐letters Hubert Butler (1900‐91) when considering the fate of Southern Protestants after Irish Independence. As both a product and critic of this culture, Butler posed the question repeatedly, refusing to accept as inevitable the marginalization of his community within the newly established state. Inspired by the example of the Revivalist generation, he challenged his compatriots to approach modern Irish identity in terms complementary rather than exclusivist. In the process of doing so, he produced a corpus of literary essays European in stature, informed by extensive travel, deep reading, and an active engagement with the political and social upheavals of his age. His insistence on the necessity of Protestant participation in Irish life, coupled with his challenges to received Catholic opinion, made him a contentious figure on both sides of the sectarian divide. This study therefore seeks to address not only Butler's remarkable personal career but also some of the larger themes to which he consistently drew attention: the need to balance Irish cosmopolitanism with local relationships; to address the compromises of the Second World War and the hypocrisies of the Cold War; to promote a society in which constructive dissent might not just be tolerated but valued. As a result, by the end of his life Butler came to be recognized as a forerunner of the more tolerant and expansive Ireland of today.Less

Robert Tobin

Published in print: 2012-01-05

‘How do such people, with brilliant members and dull ones, fare when they pass from being a dominant minority to being a powerless one?’ So asked the Kilkenny man‐of‐letters Hubert Butler (1900‐91) when considering the fate of Southern Protestants after Irish Independence. As both a product and critic of this culture, Butler posed the question repeatedly, refusing to accept as inevitable the marginalization of his community within the newly established state. Inspired by the example of the Revivalist generation, he challenged his compatriots to approach modern Irish identity in terms complementary rather than exclusivist. In the process of doing so, he produced a corpus of literary essays European in stature, informed by extensive travel, deep reading, and an active engagement with the political and social upheavals of his age. His insistence on the necessity of Protestant participation in Irish life, coupled with his challenges to received Catholic opinion, made him a contentious figure on both sides of the sectarian divide. This study therefore seeks to address not only Butler's remarkable personal career but also some of the larger themes to which he consistently drew attention: the need to balance Irish cosmopolitanism with local relationships; to address the compromises of the Second World War and the hypocrisies of the Cold War; to promote a society in which constructive dissent might not just be tolerated but valued. As a result, by the end of his life Butler came to be recognized as a forerunner of the more tolerant and expansive Ireland of today.

Sir Harry Hinsley was a cryptanalyst, an historian and an effective university administrator. He was fascinated by the progression of peace and war since states had become the most common form of ...
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Sir Harry Hinsley was a cryptanalyst, an historian and an effective university administrator. He was fascinated by the progression of peace and war since states had become the most common form of political organisation among human societies, and their near universality had induced the creation of an international system among them. Here are to be found the main thrusts of his three core books: Power and the Pursuit of Peace (CUP, 1963), Sovereignty (Watts, 1966), and Nationalism and the International System. Of these, Power and the Pursuit of Peace is the most substantial, Sovereignty the most important and original of his writings, while Nationalism represents a further working out of a very important theme from Power and the Pursuit of Peace.Less

Francis Harry Hinsley 1918–1998

Richard Langhorne

Published in print: 2003-12-18

Sir Harry Hinsley was a cryptanalyst, an historian and an effective university administrator. He was fascinated by the progression of peace and war since states had become the most common form of political organisation among human societies, and their near universality had induced the creation of an international system among them. Here are to be found the main thrusts of his three core books: Power and the Pursuit of Peace (CUP, 1963), Sovereignty (Watts, 1966), and Nationalism and the International System. Of these, Power and the Pursuit of Peace is the most substantial, Sovereignty the most important and original of his writings, while Nationalism represents a further working out of a very important theme from Power and the Pursuit of Peace.

This chapter is a counterpoint to the previous chapter. It focuses on the centrifugal effects of Christianity on regional identity, looking at this in the context of the wider Roman‐Empire and the ...
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This chapter is a counterpoint to the previous chapter. It focuses on the centrifugal effects of Christianity on regional identity, looking at this in the context of the wider Roman‐Empire and the problem of Romanisation, Using a theoretical framework drawn from literature on modern nationalism in eastern Europe and the Arab world, this short chapter examines the clustering and separation of identities in the Roman world, taking Jews and Samaritans as case studies, before looking at Edessa and Syriac‐speakers in detail.Less

Theories of Nations and the World of Late Antiquity

Philip Wood

Published in print: 2010-12-01

This chapter is a counterpoint to the previous chapter. It focuses on the centrifugal effects of Christianity on regional identity, looking at this in the context of the wider Roman‐Empire and the problem of Romanisation, Using a theoretical framework drawn from literature on modern nationalism in eastern Europe and the Arab world, this short chapter examines the clustering and separation of identities in the Roman world, taking Jews and Samaritans as case studies, before looking at Edessa and Syriac‐speakers in detail.

In the early twentieth century, the Caucasus witnessed the rise of urban environments. Tbilisi became the jewel in the crown of the Russian Caucasus, the center of administrative and cultural life. ...
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In the early twentieth century, the Caucasus witnessed the rise of urban environments. Tbilisi became the jewel in the crown of the Russian Caucasus, the center of administrative and cultural life. The growth of Baku, a classic boomtown, was fueled by the oil industry. Urban life also created the crucible for the emergence of local nationalism. At the end of the First World War, the south Caucasus formed three independent republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. These short‐lived countries were soon conquered by the Bolsheviks and made part of the new Soviet Union. Later, the region experienced both modernization and violence at the hands of Lavrenti Beria and Joseph Stalin, both originally from the Caucasus itself.Less

Nations and Revolutions

Charles King

Published in print: 2008-03-20

In the early twentieth century, the Caucasus witnessed the rise of urban environments. Tbilisi became the jewel in the crown of the Russian Caucasus, the center of administrative and cultural life. The growth of Baku, a classic boomtown, was fueled by the oil industry. Urban life also created the crucible for the emergence of local nationalism. At the end of the First World War, the south Caucasus formed three independent republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. These short‐lived countries were soon conquered by the Bolsheviks and made part of the new Soviet Union. Later, the region experienced both modernization and violence at the hands of Lavrenti Beria and Joseph Stalin, both originally from the Caucasus itself.

The 1970s and 1980s were characterized by the long tenure in office of important Communist Party secretaries in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, including Heydar Aliyev and Eduard Shevardnadze. All ...
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The 1970s and 1980s were characterized by the long tenure in office of important Communist Party secretaries in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, including Heydar Aliyev and Eduard Shevardnadze. All were involved in building modern and stable Soviet republics after the disruptions of Stalinism, but each also spent a great deal of time battling corruption. Nationalism prompted the three south Caucasus republics to exit the Soviet Union, but it also created serious problems internally, given the secession of territories such as Abkhazia and Nagorno‐Karabakh. Russia's own secessionist struggle with Chechnya defined the north Caucasus in the 1990s.Less

Time of Troubles

Charles King

Published in print: 2008-03-20

The 1970s and 1980s were characterized by the long tenure in office of important Communist Party secretaries in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, including Heydar Aliyev and Eduard Shevardnadze. All were involved in building modern and stable Soviet republics after the disruptions of Stalinism, but each also spent a great deal of time battling corruption. Nationalism prompted the three south Caucasus republics to exit the Soviet Union, but it also created serious problems internally, given the secession of territories such as Abkhazia and Nagorno‐Karabakh. Russia's own secessionist struggle with Chechnya defined the north Caucasus in the 1990s.

This chapter is about the origins of the global apartheid debate. It opens with a section about Harold Macmillan’s famous 1960 ‘Wind of Change’ speech in Cape Town—in which the British Prime Minister ...
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This chapter is about the origins of the global apartheid debate. It opens with a section about Harold Macmillan’s famous 1960 ‘Wind of Change’ speech in Cape Town—in which the British Prime Minister celebrated the arrival of African nationalism and warned that Afrikaner leaders needed to abandon apartheid—and then shifts attention to the history of apartheid and African nationalism in South Africa. The first section explains the country’s place in the British empire, the intellectual rationale of ‘separate development,’ and the political infighting between apartheid pragmatists and apartheid theorists before 1960. The second section highlights the nonwhite community’s efforts to overcome racial discrimination in South Africa, lingering on the tensions between cosmopolitan liberalism—embodied by the African National Congress (ANC)—and African nationalism of Anton Lembede and later Robert Sobukwe. These two parallel stories came together only one month after Macmillan’s visit to South Africa in the form of the Sharpeville Massacre.Less

Architects and Earthquakes

Ryan M. Irwin

Published in print: 2012-09-07

This chapter is about the origins of the global apartheid debate. It opens with a section about Harold Macmillan’s famous 1960 ‘Wind of Change’ speech in Cape Town—in which the British Prime Minister celebrated the arrival of African nationalism and warned that Afrikaner leaders needed to abandon apartheid—and then shifts attention to the history of apartheid and African nationalism in South Africa. The first section explains the country’s place in the British empire, the intellectual rationale of ‘separate development,’ and the political infighting between apartheid pragmatists and apartheid theorists before 1960. The second section highlights the nonwhite community’s efforts to overcome racial discrimination in South Africa, lingering on the tensions between cosmopolitan liberalism—embodied by the African National Congress (ANC)—and African nationalism of Anton Lembede and later Robert Sobukwe. These two parallel stories came together only one month after Macmillan’s visit to South Africa in the form of the Sharpeville Massacre.

Reaching as far back as ancient times, Ronojoy Sen pairs a novel history of India’s engagement with sport and a probing analysis of its cultural and political development under monarchy and ...
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Reaching as far back as ancient times, Ronojoy Sen pairs a novel history of India’s engagement with sport and a probing analysis of its cultural and political development under monarchy and colonialism, and as an independent nation. Some sports that originated in India have fallen out of favor, while others, such as cricket, have been adopted and made wholly India’s own. Sen’s innovative project casts sport less as a natural expression of human competition than as an instructive practice reflecting a unique play with power, morality, aesthetics, identity, and money. Sen follows the transformation of sport from an elite, kingly pastime to a national obsession tied to colonialism, nationalism, and free market liberalization. He pays special attention to two modern phenomena: the dominance of cricket in the Indian consciousness and the chronic failure of a billion-strong nation to compete successfully in international sporting competitions, such as the Olympics. Innovatively incorporating examples from popular media and other unconventional sources, Sen not only captures the political nature of sport in India but also reveals the patterns of patronage, clientage, and institutionalization that have bound this diverse nation together for centuries.Less

Nation at Play : A History of Sport in India

Ronojoy Sen

Published in print: 2015-10-06

Reaching as far back as ancient times, Ronojoy Sen pairs a novel history of India’s engagement with sport and a probing analysis of its cultural and political development under monarchy and colonialism, and as an independent nation. Some sports that originated in India have fallen out of favor, while others, such as cricket, have been adopted and made wholly India’s own. Sen’s innovative project casts sport less as a natural expression of human competition than as an instructive practice reflecting a unique play with power, morality, aesthetics, identity, and money. Sen follows the transformation of sport from an elite, kingly pastime to a national obsession tied to colonialism, nationalism, and free market liberalization. He pays special attention to two modern phenomena: the dominance of cricket in the Indian consciousness and the chronic failure of a billion-strong nation to compete successfully in international sporting competitions, such as the Olympics. Innovatively incorporating examples from popular media and other unconventional sources, Sen not only captures the political nature of sport in India but also reveals the patterns of patronage, clientage, and institutionalization that have bound this diverse nation together for centuries.

This chapter introduces the concept of ‘cosmopolitanism’ in the context of post‐revolutionary Irish national life. It considers the contrasting perceptions of internationalism between Southern Irish ...
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This chapter introduces the concept of ‘cosmopolitanism’ in the context of post‐revolutionary Irish national life. It considers the contrasting perceptions of internationalism between Southern Irish Protestants and Catholics. It introduces Butler's early interest in travel and in cultivating a cosmopolitan viewpoint. It accounts for developments in his personal life, including his marriage, and his pivotal experiences in both the USSR and the Balkans. It provides extended analyses of some of his major travel essays and places them in the context of archival material from the same period. It provides an account of his work on behalf of Austrian Jews in Vienna before the outbreak of the war and his decision to spend the war in neutral Ireland. It discusses his domestic circumstances during this time and his growing literary output. It considers his views on Irish neutrality in the context of the wider debate on the subject.Less

Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and War, 1930–45

Robert Tobin

Published in print: 2012-01-05

This chapter introduces the concept of ‘cosmopolitanism’ in the context of post‐revolutionary Irish national life. It considers the contrasting perceptions of internationalism between Southern Irish Protestants and Catholics. It introduces Butler's early interest in travel and in cultivating a cosmopolitan viewpoint. It accounts for developments in his personal life, including his marriage, and his pivotal experiences in both the USSR and the Balkans. It provides extended analyses of some of his major travel essays and places them in the context of archival material from the same period. It provides an account of his work on behalf of Austrian Jews in Vienna before the outbreak of the war and his decision to spend the war in neutral Ireland. It discusses his domestic circumstances during this time and his growing literary output. It considers his views on Irish neutrality in the context of the wider debate on the subject.

This chapter explores Charles Olson’s and Amiri Baraka’s various ways of letting the body into their writing. Olson’s Maximus (1960-1970), for example, equates fidelity to a viewer’s particular ...
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This chapter explores Charles Olson’s and Amiri Baraka’s various ways of letting the body into their writing. Olson’s Maximus (1960-1970), for example, equates fidelity to a viewer’s particular perception and body with fidelity to meaning, privileging American immigrant experiences in the process. He imagines that the puff of air he breathes (when speaking a word) can be an element of that world—like a piece of newspaper—captured by the poet. Drawing on archival sources, we see how Olson injects his pluralist poetics with the administrative ideology he developed in the 1940s at the US Office of War Information. Such a relationship between perception, politics, breath, and meaning also characterizes Amiri Baraka’s early writing (as LeRoi Jones), when he identifies Olson’s influence on his work in “How You Sound??” (1960). Although Baraka’s Black Nationalist poetry of the 1960s and early 1970s explicitly rejects white American poetry, his adoption of Olson’s poetics of identity emphasizes racial qualities of voice over the meaning of words.Less

Administering Poetic Breath for the People : Charles Olson and Amiri Baraka

Lisa Siraganian

Published in print: 2012-01-12

This chapter explores Charles Olson’s and Amiri Baraka’s various ways of letting the body into their writing. Olson’s Maximus (1960-1970), for example, equates fidelity to a viewer’s particular perception and body with fidelity to meaning, privileging American immigrant experiences in the process. He imagines that the puff of air he breathes (when speaking a word) can be an element of that world—like a piece of newspaper—captured by the poet. Drawing on archival sources, we see how Olson injects his pluralist poetics with the administrative ideology he developed in the 1940s at the US Office of War Information. Such a relationship between perception, politics, breath, and meaning also characterizes Amiri Baraka’s early writing (as LeRoi Jones), when he identifies Olson’s influence on his work in “How You Sound??” (1960). Although Baraka’s Black Nationalist poetry of the 1960s and early 1970s explicitly rejects white American poetry, his adoption of Olson’s poetics of identity emphasizes racial qualities of voice over the meaning of words.

The sensational discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun's tomb, close on the heels of Britain's declaration of Egyptian independence, accelerated the growth in Egypt of both Egyptology as a formal ...
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The sensational discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun's tomb, close on the heels of Britain's declaration of Egyptian independence, accelerated the growth in Egypt of both Egyptology as a formal discipline and of 'pharaonism'—popular interest in ancient Egypt—as an inspiration in the national struggle for full independence. Emphasizing the three decades from 1922 until Nasser's revolution in 1952, this follow-up to Whose Pharaohs? looks at the ways in which Egypt developed its own archaeologies—ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Coptic, and Islamic. Each of these four archaeologies had given birth to, and grown up around, a major antiquities museum in Egypt. Later, Cairo, Alexandria, and Ain Shams universities also joined in shaping these disciplines. The closely-related history of tourism—including Thomas Cook & Son, Nile steamers, and the famous Shepheard's Hotel—also receives careful attention. For Egyptians, developing their own expertise in fields dominated by the French, Germans, and British was often also an expression of nationalism. Egyptians who valued archaeology also had to defend it against the minority of their compatriots for whom pharaonic antiquity represented only alien and idolatrous darkness before the dawning of Islam. In 1952, Nasser's revolution put an end to ninety-four years of French direction of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, and four years later the Suez War rang down the curtain on British colonialism in Egypt.Less

Contesting Antiquity in Egypt : Archaeologies, Museums, and the Struggle for Identities from World War I to Nasser

Donald Malcolm Reid

Published in print: 2015-11-20

The sensational discovery in 1922 of Tutankhamun's tomb, close on the heels of Britain's declaration of Egyptian independence, accelerated the growth in Egypt of both Egyptology as a formal discipline and of 'pharaonism'—popular interest in ancient Egypt—as an inspiration in the national struggle for full independence. Emphasizing the three decades from 1922 until Nasser's revolution in 1952, this follow-up to Whose Pharaohs? looks at the ways in which Egypt developed its own archaeologies—ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Coptic, and Islamic. Each of these four archaeologies had given birth to, and grown up around, a major antiquities museum in Egypt. Later, Cairo, Alexandria, and Ain Shams universities also joined in shaping these disciplines. The closely-related history of tourism—including Thomas Cook & Son, Nile steamers, and the famous Shepheard's Hotel—also receives careful attention. For Egyptians, developing their own expertise in fields dominated by the French, Germans, and British was often also an expression of nationalism. Egyptians who valued archaeology also had to defend it against the minority of their compatriots for whom pharaonic antiquity represented only alien and idolatrous darkness before the dawning of Islam. In 1952, Nasser's revolution put an end to ninety-four years of French direction of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, and four years later the Suez War rang down the curtain on British colonialism in Egypt.

Dividing the Nile offers a new perspective on Anglo-Egyptian rule in the Sudan. Most scholarship has attributed Sudanese independence in 1956 to British dominance of the Condominium, historical ...
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Dividing the Nile offers a new perspective on Anglo-Egyptian rule in the Sudan. Most scholarship has attributed Sudanese independence in 1956 to British dominance of the Condominium, historical animosity toward Egypt, or the emergence of Sudanese nationalism. Dividing the Nile counters that Egyptian entrepreneurs failed to develop a united economy or shared economic interests, guaranteeing Egypt's ‘loss’ of the Sudan. It argues that British dominance of the Condominium may have stymied initial Egyptian efforts, but that after the First World War Egypt became increasingly interested in and capable of economic ventures in the Sudan. However, early Egyptian financial assistance and the seemingly successful resolution of Nile water resources by the latter 1920s had actually divided the regions. With the signing of the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the easing of Depression-era conditions, Egyptians finally began concerted efforts to promote commerce and to acquire Sudanese lands. Egyptian entrepreneurs were never able to overcome British officials’ opposition to irrigated agricultural schemes in the Sudan, and merchants made inroads only in very limited local markets and only when international competitors were temporarily restricted. Solid Sudanese economic bonds to global markets that had been established in the first forty years of the Condominium administration could not be undone in its last decade and a half of existence. Egyptian nationalists had simply missed opportunities of aligning their economic future with that of their Sudanese brethren, resulting ultimately in two independent nations.Less

David E. Mills

Published in print: 2015-02-07

Dividing the Nile offers a new perspective on Anglo-Egyptian rule in the Sudan. Most scholarship has attributed Sudanese independence in 1956 to British dominance of the Condominium, historical animosity toward Egypt, or the emergence of Sudanese nationalism. Dividing the Nile counters that Egyptian entrepreneurs failed to develop a united economy or shared economic interests, guaranteeing Egypt's ‘loss’ of the Sudan. It argues that British dominance of the Condominium may have stymied initial Egyptian efforts, but that after the First World War Egypt became increasingly interested in and capable of economic ventures in the Sudan. However, early Egyptian financial assistance and the seemingly successful resolution of Nile water resources by the latter 1920s had actually divided the regions. With the signing of the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the easing of Depression-era conditions, Egyptians finally began concerted efforts to promote commerce and to acquire Sudanese lands. Egyptian entrepreneurs were never able to overcome British officials’ opposition to irrigated agricultural schemes in the Sudan, and merchants made inroads only in very limited local markets and only when international competitors were temporarily restricted. Solid Sudanese economic bonds to global markets that had been established in the first forty years of the Condominium administration could not be undone in its last decade and a half of existence. Egyptian nationalists had simply missed opportunities of aligning their economic future with that of their Sudanese brethren, resulting ultimately in two independent nations.